A Rasmussen poll of likely voters released Tuesday found support for legalizing and regulating marijuana at 56% nationwide, a significant increase over a March Rasmussen poll and in line with other recent polls that show legalizing gaining majority support and trending upward.

The poll comes ahead of elections in November that will see votes in at least two states, Colorado and Washington, vote on marijuana legalization initiatives. Efforts are still underway to get on the ballot in four other states -- Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, and Oregon. The poll did not break down support by state.

Legalization garnered majority support among both sexes and across age groups, although with some significant differences. While 61% of men supported "legalizing marijuana and treating it like alcohol or cigarettes," only 52% of women did, reflecting a gender gap apparent in other polls. And while even seniors came in with 50% support, only 49% of respondents with minor children supported legalization.

Support in that demographic jumped, however, when pollsters asked if they would favor legalization "if no one under 18 could buy it, it was banned in public, and there were strict penalties for driving under the influence." Under those conditions, support among parents jumped to 58% and support among Republicans increased to 52%, bumping up overall support for legalization one point to 57%.

The poll also asked whether it should not be a crime "for someone to smoke marijuana" in private. Only 32% agreed that private pot-smoking should remain a crime, while 68% disagreed.

The same poll asked whether US drug consumption is a major cause of drug violence in Mexico and Central America, with 62% agreeing that it is. More surprisingly, 47% said they agreed with legalizing marijuana and cocaine if it would reduce the violence along the Mexican border. But in another question in the poll, only 11% agreed with legalizing and regulating cocaine.

The poll sampled 1,000 likely voters. It has a margin of error of +/- 3%.

President Obama has said that marijuana legalization is a legitimate topic for discussion. While we are supposed to be discussing, he is passing World treaties and pushing for mandatory treatment to be metered out by courts upon marijuana users worldwide. I say with poll results like this, the discussion is over. This is not the beginning of the discussion, I think it should be the end.

Congress needs to act to remove the Federal prohibition of marijuana now.

Considering that Rasmussen is a conservative polling outlet, it's likely that support for legalization is greater than these numbers indicate. Unfortunately, in today's United States, the interests of businesses outweigh the interests of the people. Big Alcohol, Big Pharma, the artificial textile industry (read: DuPont), the cotton industry all have huge piles of cash to throw at politicians to keep weed illegal and thereby protect their profits.
We're winning the battle of public opinion, but convincing the politicians to throw their cash cows under the bus is still a long road to hoe.

Considering that Rasmussen is a conservative polling outlet, it's likely that support for legalization is greater than these numbers indicate. Unfortunately, in today's United States, the interests of businesses outweigh the interests of the people. Big Alcohol, Big Pharma, the artificial textile industry (read: DuPont), the cotton industry all have huge piles of cash to throw at politicians to keep weed illegal and thereby protect their profits.
We're winning the battle of public opinion, but convincing the politicians to throw their cash cows under the bus is still a long road to hoe.